Clearly, these are the kinds of abuses that would unseat any
American politician, but Italy is simply a very different place.
His violations of the legal code have always been common
knowledge.

From a 2001 article in the Economist:

Mr Berlusconi’s strongest claim is that many of the charges
against him—whether of conflict of interest or of much greater
crimes—have been known for years, and yet most Italians seem
untroubled. In other words, though the judiciary may not agree,
the court of public opinion finds him innocent.

Recent gaffes have triggered a public approval slide for
Berlusconi, but it has long been apparent that he is not a
trustworthy character.

Further, it would be silly to blame Berlusconi alone for the
economic woes Italy has suffered. Italy's debt problem is
long-standing: it has maintained a public debt greater than 100%
of GDP since 1992 according to the IMF (via Index Mundi).

True, it was Romano Prodi and his center-right government who can
be credited for the debt control measures instituted in the
middle of the last decade. Berlusconi's love of tax cuts
certainly has not helped his cause on the economic policy front,
but he did introduce incentives to have more children and
succeeded in saving big banks and companies at the onset of the
financial crisis in 2008.

However, Prodi failed to make any lasting progress towards reform
and growth, and incensed Italians with tax hikes. Further,
neither government has been able to truly tackle the problems at
the heart of Italy's crisis — growth and lack of competitiveness.

In fact, it is even possible to credit Berlusconi for his
euro-wide political policy. In 2008, he was lauded for uniting
eurozone leaders and encouraging coordinated action during the
last financial crisis, rather than the domestic action other
leaders had advocated.

Berlusconi, after having tried to create a European fund to
save struggling banks, successfully persuaded the EU
tocoordinate its
responseto the
crisis. He also pointed out how important it was to take action
onEuriborinter-bank lending rates in
order to build banks' confidence.

Clearly Berlusconi is far from an ideal leader, however, it's
unclear that anyone else would have done much better. Bickering
between the strong Northern and ailing Southern halves of the
country have long complicated attempts to spur growth, and both
major political parties have failed to stem rampant corruption
and tax evasion.

Sure, Berlusconi can come off as dimwitted and impolitic, but
he's no exception among Italian (and even global) politicians.
And with on-and-off protests over austerity measures, there is
little indication that Italians are truly ready to bite the
bullet of more sweeping change, regardless
of who takes office. Not to mention that Berlusconi is not
the only Italian politician with a shady past.